Many real winners in adoption challenge

Sunday

Aug 31, 2014 at 12:01 AMAug 31, 2014 at 10:24 PM

Elizabeth RobertsRecord Staff Writer

STOCKTON — No matter who comes out on top today in the ASPCA Rachael Ray $100,000 Challenge — and the Stockton Animal Shelter is all but guaranteed to take first or second place — it’s ultimately animals like 5-month-old Erebos who are the real winners in the end.

Kevin and Ave Kriser adopted Erebos several weeks ago during a mixed-breed promotional event, one of several each week the shelter has hosted during the challenge, giving him a home alongside their other two rescued pit bulls and their children, ages 7 and 9. As he wiggled and wagged his tail and joyfully approached a stranger Saturday at the shelter’s Summer Block Party, he seemed blissfully unaware of how badly his breed is overpopulated and just how close he had come to not making it out.

“Rescue dogs always make the best dogs,” said Kevin Kriser, a pit fan through and through. “There’s never even a question. We’ve never had any issues whatsoever. The misconceptions that run rampant with this breed … it’s borderline gross. Look at him. He’s a beautiful dog.”

Today is the deadline for the 50 shelters nationwide competing in the summerlong challenge, aiming to break their own records in adopting out more animals than they did at the same time last year. In the first two months, a total of 43,959 dogs and cats had been adopted during the challenge. Stockton and Fresno were neck and neck as the clock wound down, alternating between first and second place. Officials hope the block party, which continues today with a goal of 100 adoptions for throughout the weekend, pushes Stockton to the top.

“My hat is off to Fresno,” said Tammie Murrell, interim manager at the shelter, “but I want to beat ’em. I would love for them to come in second.”

Murrell said Stockton is certain to take first or second place, and will either be awarded the grand prize of $100,000 or a smaller prize that will be determined at the end of the contest and awarded Oct. 7, when the winners are announced. “Hopefully, we’ll be the shelter the ASPCA visits with one of those big checks.”

If Saturday was any indication, Stockton is well on its way. A whopping 44 cats and dogs were adopted out, breaking the shelter’s previous all-time daily record of 39, Murrell said.

The shelter was bustling with visitors wavering back and forth between cages deciding on which animal to take home, trying to choose between little guys jumping up and down begging for attention, mellower guys hanging back and just watching all the action, or friendly cats rubbing against the bars of their cages.

Kerissa Page Irving of Stockton and her two children, ages 2 and 4, decided on a brindle/boxer mix named Gordon Ramsay after spending time with several dogs at the shelter. Gordon, bounding ecstatically after being sprung from behind bars, will join her rescued Yorkshire terrier as a companion. “My son loves it. He’s already giving it snacks,” she said. “Rescues are better than buying them.”

Indeed, all adoption fees for this weekend’s events have been completely waived. Adopters can take home a dog or cat already spayed or neutered, licensed, vaccinated and micro-chipped — all of which can run into the hundreds of dollars.

“It’s the best deal in town,” Murrell said, walking a visitor through the shelter’s surgery area, where animals were being altered late into the evening Saturday so they could go home with families as soon as possible.

Despite the larger-than-normal crowds, the adoption process was quick and easy, even for someone who has never been to the shelter, said a Stockton woman named Rosemarie who took home a black Chihuahua named Joey. “I usually just get strays. They show up at my door,” she said. Joey won’t really fill the place in her heart left when her previous dog passed away a week ago, but he reminded her so much of another pet she once had that she could not go home without him.

At the once-troubled shelter, which had high euthanasia rates in the past, workers were thrilled to see such an outpouring of community support.

“This is huge,” Murrell said. “For two Northern and Central California shelters from the Valley to be first and second in a nationwide competition says a lot of about California and what we are trying to do to reduce the pet overpopulation problem and reduce the homeless pet issues in our communities.

“Shelter animals deserve homes. They just need a chance, and so please, give them a chance.”